I want to know who owns what stocks, and I want to know right now. Darrel Issa, Ted Cruz, JimDeMint, Eric Cantor, and I want Romney's too.

I want to know EXACTLY who is buying shorts right now, because I'll bet anything that's what it's all about.

Take a few million, buy a grip of shorts. Keep leaking news of a "deal" so the market will run up and be optimistic. Sell the profits on the few million you didn't use for short, then buy more shorts.

Step 3: profit, no matter which way this goes.

I've said this ever since Congress reinstituted insider trading for its members. If their going to insider trade, they're going to straddle or short like there's no tomorrow in these situations. They're going to make millions for themselves and their buddies while Americans' 401Ks are going to plummet. Americans will panic and sell at a loss. And whose going to buy up those cheap shares? Yep....

doyner:Kit Fister: Stop believing that because people thought the R candidates were worse, it equates to a referendum on ACA.

So you agree, then, that giving the GOP House wasn't a referendum to repeal it either.

I do agree. If you want a referendum on something, then have a special vote of the people on the issue. Stop assuming that people are choosing candidates based on one issue and ignoring everything else as a referendum. If anything candidate historical data is more important than his current mouthnoise on a particular topic.

Mike Chewbacca:Heliovdrake: make me some tea: So, basically they are going to monkey around with the funding for ACA, turning a fully funded system into a partially funded system. WINNING

They are very worried that the ACA will work, and people will like it.

Exactly. I realize this is anecdotal evidence, but I was able to utilize the WA exchange and find insurance that was better than the insurance we'd had to buy on our own last year that was $500 cheaper each month. Better insurance. Lower deductibles. No copays (versus $40 copays). $500 cheaper per month. And even though we're solidly middle class making more than the median yearly income, we'd get a subsidy to help us pay for the insurance (which is why it was $500 cheaper and not $350).

Here's my story...

Got onto the federal exchange and looked around the plans. I qualify for no subsidies (make too much). The two plans I'm looking for will either drop my kids deductibles from $5k to either A) $2k, or B)zero dollars. Co-pays will go from $25 to either A) $30 or B) $40. My wife's deductible will go from $1K to whatever will be the kids plan. I now will be able to get individual insurance that includes maternity coverage, so I don't have to have my wife on my employer's expensive plans.

Net savings each month? Between $200 or $300, depending on which plan I go with.

Mike Chewbacca:but I was able to utilize the WA exchange and find insurance that was better than the insurance we'd had to buy on our own last year that was $500 cheaper each month. Better insurance. Lower deductibles. No copays (versus $40 copays). $500 cheaper per month. And even though we're solidly middle class making more than the median yearly income, we'd get a subsidy to help us pay for the insurance (which is why it was $500 cheaper and not $350).

Our experience as well (NY). Our insurance was more than our mortgage, for shiat coverage with an insane deductible that we never even came close to hitting, and wouldn't have without a hospitalization or a major illness. We couldn't afford it. With the ACA we can afford to insure our family. We are middle class small business owners. Not poor people.

If the ACA sucks so badly, let it fail and then repeal it. But the GOP isn't worried about that, they're terrified people will try ObamaCare and like it. And then it will NEVER go away and will be untouchable, like Medicare.

George Babbitt:nekom: I want poor people to have better access to health insurance. I was told that this makes me worse than Hitler.

I can't afford $60 copay to my primary physician and $5000/year deductible all for the cost of $175/month in premiums for Bronze level coverage.

If you're poor enough, you should be on Medicaid. Sucks to be you if you're in a Hunger Games style red state (for states with a high proportion of self-proclaimed Christians, their state governments see to delight on minimizing services to help the poor survive).

Obamacare is NOT universal healthcare. It is a Republican/private market health program that is better than what we had before, but still not like what every other first world nation. When you see those polls about people who do not support Obamacare, typically 15-25% of those don't support it because of this - it does not go far enough.

Nadie_AZ:Jan. 15, 2014 and raise the debt limit until Feb. 7 or 8 of next year.

So we do this all over again in 3 months?

How about NO.

I was thinking about this last weekend and how any bill signed into law will almost certainly leave the economic nuclear bombs of letting government funding and borrowing authorities lapse armed and at the fingertips of anybody willing to handle them. I also thought about a proposal that No Labels put out years ago, the one that the GOP latched onto earlier in the year to force the Senate to pass a budget resolution or withhold pay. That was a (admittedly selfish) attempt to change the incentives in the political system and make it so Congress has to be responsible with the government's funding. So why not change the incentives permanently by writing the budget process into the Constitution? And instead of threatening something small and petty like a paycheck which these millionaires could care little about, why not make it a big incentive like their job?

Here was the proposal I came up with.

Section 1: If, by April 1st, Congress has not approved a common budget between the two chambers, it shall be a privileged motion to call for a vote on any budget resolution that has the support of ten percent of the chamber.

Section 2: If, by October 1st, Congress has not approved and the President has not signed into law all common appropriations bills, all previous appropriations shall be continued, and the Supreme Court shall call an election for all federally elected officials to be held on the first Tuesday of December.

Section 3: Consistent with the intent of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, Congress shall not have the power to limit the borrowing authority of the federal government.

nekom: "Then they shouldn't have named it Obamacare. That stands to really backfire on them."

Flip-flopping and re-branding that thing wouldn't take them a second.It'll be back to RomneyCare just in time to rehabilitate Mitt's image before one, or several, of his sons make a Congressional run.These people are effortless masters at double-think.

For everyone complaining about the ACA, can you please actually pay attention to what the House is doing here. The House's entire move here is simply replacing a benefit to employers and unions with a benefit to medical device manufacturers. There's no fight here about Obamacare - it's purely them wanting to fark unions at the expense of industry donors. This is what they are fighting over at this point.

Lets talk 17 Repubs in rock solid not-gonna-get-primaried districts into changing to Democrats for 1 week. That changes the majority to Dem, we elect a new speaker of the house (we'll even pick a rookie instead of Pelosi just to show the Repubs we're not dicking them over), and we can pass a clean CR as well as the bill from March that makes a clean CR automatic, and a bill extending the debt limit. Once the Senate passes the reconciled bills, the 17 Repubs go back to being Repubs and we're done. If the Teabaggers start pushing bills to undo the debt limit increase or the CR, it just shows how assholey nihilists they really are and provides all the ammo necessary to kill the tea party for good next year

George Babbitt:nekom: I want poor people to have better access to health insurance. I was told that this makes me worse than Hitler.

I can't afford $60 copay to my primary physician and $5000/year deductible all for the cost of $175/month in premiums for Bronze level coverage.

If you can't afford $175 a month for health insurance, then you're living outside your means and you should reevaluate what you're wasting your money on. Health insurance should be a priority over things like that brand new car or the upgraded car with the bells and whistles. You don't need 1000 channels on your TV. You don't need a smart phone. Health insurance should be one of the things you buy no matter what.

I don't know. I'm not going to pass judgment on the ACA yet. It has not taken full effect yet and there are people saying how great it IS. It IS not great yet, nor is it bad yet. We'll all find out after it is in 100% full operation. That's what the baggers are worried about. That's why they keep kicking the DC and fiscal deal down the farking road short term. They are hoping that when the ACA takes full effect that it will implode under its own weight. If it goes good, OH MY, the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will happen.

DamnYankees:For everyone complaining about the ACA, can you please actually pay attention to what the House is doing here. The House's entire move here is simply replacing a benefit to employers and unions with a benefit to medical device manufacturers. There's no fight here about Obamacare - it's purely them wanting to fark unions at the expense of industry donors. This is what they are fighting over at this point.

HotWingConspiracy:The GOP made the election a referendum on the ACA and on Obama's policies in general. Didn't pan out.

Friggin' this. I'm sick of this talking point that "just because Obama was reelected doesn't meant that ACA is popular." Yes, it farking does. It was the ONLY thing Romney was consistent about as a candidate. How many times did he say he'd repeal Obamacare on his first day in office?

No, the GOP made it a referendum on Obamacare. People may have disliked Romney, but they obviously disliked Obamacare less, because they chose, overwhelmingly, to leave Obama and his signature legislation in place.

One of our state's Congressional Tea Party twits was quoted in the paper talking about how default would be great in the long run because it will bring federal spending under control. The human mind's ability to rationalize is a frightening thing. These people have no guilt about what they are doing bc they have convinced themselves they are 100% in the right.

dwrash:Delaying the individual mandate for a year is in the best interests of the democratic party.. its a shame that they cannot see this. It avoids the favoritism that the unions are other deep pocket lobbiests are getting and it will allow them to get HealthCare.gov ironed out (which from all reports is a 6-9 month all hands on deck project since it's design is fundamentally flawed.. which will push it past the open enrollment deadline).. if they don't push it out, the democrats are going to catch hell when people have to pay their IRS fines. Right now the shut down is obscuring most of the healthcare.gov issues... once the shutdown goes away, and media focuses full time on healthcare.gov.. the shiat is going to hit the fan.

As far as the medical devices tax... the entire idea of taxing a single industry to pay for associated ACA costs was stupid from the get-go... whoever got this included in the ACA should be run out of town... it's causing medical device manufacturers to ship their manufacturing overseas so that laber costs are lowered.

Copperbelly watersnake:One of our state's Congressional Tea Party twits was quoted in the paper talking about how default would be great in the long run because it will bring federal spending under control. The human mind's ability to rationalize is a frightening thing. These people have no guilt about what they are doing bc they have convinced themselves they are 100% in the right.

These are the same people who said we should have let the banks fail so that we could go through a quick depression.

TNel:Heliovdrake: make me some tea: So, basically they are going to monkey around with the funding for ACA, turning a fully funded system into a partially funded system. WINNING

They are very worried that the ACA will work, and people will like it.

That's what is making the GOP worried. If they let ACA go through people will find out how good it is and then they will never win another election. Again GOP only cares about themselvs and not who voted for them.

That, and it makes the Blah man look even better. The GOP must be getting tired of Obama constantly making them look like brainless goons.